This was a true insight into how community voices can really de-mystify a clouded personal financial space. Let us now look back at the best moments of 2017. #throwback

#1: ILP vs Index Fund (by Alan Kor)

Of course, who else other than one of our top contributors – Alan Kor. Though controversial and heavy worded at times, he has indeed sparked debatearound a common insurance-linked investment product which many financially savvy people feel strongly about. Posted on 17th October, the article shared talks about how Warren Buffet claims the S&P 500 will do better than the great majority of professional managers achieve for their clients after fees.

Here is a summary:

Alan Kor felt that the idea of ILPs and funds are loaded with heavy fees

However many agents stepped up to share about the pros and positives of ILPs which cater to the kind of consumers who:

Do not have time to manage their investments

Want to attempt to beat the inflation rate (over a really long period 20 to 30 years)

There are definitely both sides to the story, so at the end of the day, do your own due diligence!

Here is a summary:

With spending for their wedding and other essentials for their Honeymoon, they made it happen

Comments also suggested the various strategies to use the right miles card and ways to hack this game

Inspired, we soon arranged for a Cashback vs Miles debate to clear the doubt for potential spenders deciding which method to best spend their money!

#3: A step by step guide to buying Bitcoin (by SGBudgetBabe)

Ah, where would 2017 be if we did not talk about Bitcoin? Riding this wave of a new cryptocurrency hitting the mainstream world, SG Budgetbabe penned a thoughtful piece to clear the confusion of how to really get some of these modern-day assets in your hands.

Here is a summary:

The post sparked some debate on cryptocurrency for beginners

Interestingly, many of the community members were on the lookout for a simple guide

There seemed to be too many fly-by-night courses to educate on this seemingly complicated process

You can follow her story and thoughts in our community as many of her fans and also fellow members and beginners appreciate her writing for regular people living in Singapore!

#4: Side-gigs and Skills to earn money (by Anonymous)

This was rather of a shock. When I posted this up, I was not expecting this to have as many comments as it did. Seems like people are really keen to share the various side-gigs and ways to make money outside of work!

Here are some of the comments:

GrabHitch Carpooling

Carousell Sales

Video editing and content

Freelance writing

Debate coaching etc.

Conclusion: We are just getting started

As with any community movement, we are only 1% there. The mission of helping each other make smarter financial decisions really kick in over the next few years and we believe that we are only scratching the surface.

More initiatives to help our community make smarter fianancial decisions

We are building a platform to help our users make smarter financial decisions to complement our facebook group. We will be launching that really soon, so stay tuned 🙂

And as always, we are open to feedback and ideas, if you have any feel free to drop us your thoughts on this survey here. We read every one of them!

Check out our blog for more unbiased opinions on your personal finance journey.